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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23160904">Shattered</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flower_SystemMadness20/pseuds/Flower_SystemMadness20'>Flower_SystemMadness20</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Steven Universe (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Character Death, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, Gay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:14:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,170</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23160904</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flower_SystemMadness20/pseuds/Flower_SystemMadness20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sapphire was crying, and she didn't know why. Everyone else was crying over a simple ruby soldier, and she felt sad, but...</p><p>Wait</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ruby &amp; Sapphire &amp; Steven Universe, Ruby/Sapphire (Steven Universe)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Remembering</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It happened so fast, before it did in real time. Sapphire's ruby guard had been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now small red shards a glistening dust scattered the ground.</p><p>Sapphire was crying, and she didn't know why. Everyone else was crying over a simple ruby soldier, and she felt sad, but...</p><p>Wait.</p><p>"Ruby..."</p><p>She choked back a sob, dropping to her knees. </p><p>"Oh. Oh no. No, no, NO! RUBY!"</p><p>Sapphire began to glow, and her gem rose up into the air. She was remembering.</p><p>Bismuth, Peridot, Lapis, Spinel and Steven watched as the glowing mass around her gem warped and shaped itself back into her most recent form, as she dropped to the ground once more.</p><p>She felt a hand on her shoulder, but it wasn't there for comfort.</p><p>"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP IT?!??!" Steven yelled, more enraged and anguished than she'd ever seen a human or gem before.</p><p>"I-"</p><p>"WHAT'S THE USE IN FUTURE VISION IF YOU DON'T USE IT?!!?!!?!!!!"</p><p>Bismuth grabbed his arm in an attempt to get him to shut up, and he didn't resist.</p><p>Sapphire picked up one of the shards and ran.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sapphire's room</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A lot of time had passed. Steven had barely thought of Sapphire, or anything other than getting Spinel to stop whatever she had been planning to do with the injector. He didn’t really want to look for her, but the others made him.</p><p>They looked everywhere, until finally...</p><p>“How about her room in the temple?” Suggested Amethyst, putting her hand on the door.</p><p>Steven thought for a moment, before opening Rose's room. He stepped inside without a word, and the temple door shut behind him.</p><p>“Okay... Room, I need to see Sapphire. The... The real one”</p><p>A few pink clouds moved, showing one of the many red pipes, this one leading down into the dark, where he couldn’t see the ground.</p><p>He slid down it and into a cold, dark room with a bluish hue. Sapphire's room. Shivering, he pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders and spotted some unusual ice on the ground.</p><p>“Hello? Sapphire??? It's me, Steven. Listen, I-I'm sorry about what I said earlier. Pearl, Amethyst and Bismuth thought I-I was overreacting. They’re b-back to normal, by the way. E-everyone is.”</p><p>Turning a corner, Steven saw a small blue figure curled up on the ground, knees tucked up to her chest. Spikes of ice surrounded her, pointing at anything outside her circle of grief.</p><p>He ran forwards as close as he could get without being impaled on the ice.</p><p>“H-hey...” He said quietly. “D-do you want t-to come out and talk to the others?”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“W-well... You can t-talk to m-“</p><p>“...Leave me alone...” came Sapphire’s response. Steven blinked and noticed a glint of red in her hand.</p><p>“W-well... You c-can talk to any of us i-if you want...” He said, shivering even more. Cryokenisis and negative emotions apparently don't mix well...</p><p>Suddenly, she did something he honestly wasn’t expecting. She looked up at him, moving her bangs to see him better. Her eye seemed even more blue than usual, and tears were streaking down her face. Oddly enough, she didn’t look angry at him.</p><p>“I... I don’t want to t-talk at the moment...” She said, looking away and letting her hair fall back to cover her eye.</p><p>“R-right... I-I'll leave you a-alone now...” He said, walking over to the temple door. Sapphire watched him go, willing him to stay. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts, there were too many; too much for her to handle on her own.</p><p>The temple door opened in a therapeutic swirl pattern, and there were sudden hushed voices that spoke in whispers. Those must be the others. Steven stepped out of the room, the door closing behind him.</p><p>She turned back to where she had originally been facing, and she stopped. There was a white butterfly fluttering in front of her face. She tried to ignore it, but then there was another. And another. Two more. Five. The butterflies kept coming, swarming around her small form.</p><p>Soon there were too many for her to see anything other than butterflies. Butterflies, and... The small red shard that she hadn’t looked at since she had ran into the room about half a day ago. Ruby...</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>... hello?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Feelings (Make sense)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was at least three days until Sapphire decided she would leave her room. She didn’t really want to talk to anyone; she was only just ready to be around anyone in general.</p><p>The ice defence had since melted, but the occasional butterfly still appeared in the corner of her eye. She draped a blanket around her shoulders; it was still cold.</p><p>The blanket was one of the few things that she – not Garnet or Ruby – owned, and it had been given to her by the latter. It was a pale greyish-blue with vivid red blanket stitch around the rim. Ruby had owned a similar one, but with the colours switched.</p><p>She sighed, pulling it tighter around her and trying hard not to cry. She walked over to the door, unsure of what she’d see on the other side. She felt like being... Spontaneous...</p><p>The door opened and she looked into the outside(ish) world for the first time in almost four days.</p><p>There was no one there. The house appeared empty, and the lights were all turned off, leaving her in the darkness again. She stepped out of her room, allowing the door to close behind her.</p><p>She walked towards the couch and sat down, thinking. After a while, and no sign from the others, she decided to finally use her future vision.</p><p>In an instant, possibility upon possibility began invading her thoughts, to the point where she was unable to think of anything else. She closed her eye and concentrated on the most likely outcome.</p><p>Steven had gone out to the big donut and would return in a few minutes, Amethyst would be with him. They’d both stop when they saw her, and there was a 27- no, 37% chance that they would immediately run in and hug her.</p><p>Sapphire looked up at the clock hanging on the wall; they’d arrive in about... 2 minutes 19 seconds... No! Maybe just the 19 seconds? She counted in her head. At around 14, she heard their voices coming nearer to the house. Looks like this was the 19-second timeline.</p><p>“-and I tried to explain to her, Ruby’s-“ Steven stopped in his tracks, spotting the small blue gem sat on the couch. “Oh, hey Sapphire!”</p><p>Amethyst poked her head around the door “Hi Sapph! You doing okay?”</p><p>Sapphire wasn’t saying anything, just staring at them. Steven had said her name. That was the first time she’d heard it in days. Ruby. And Amethyst... Normally the only one who’d call her that was...</p><p>“Hello? Sapphire?”</p><p>She blinked, remembering that Amethyst had asked her a question. “Y-yes, I'm fine. How are you two doing?”</p><p>Steven shrugged “Definitely been better” he said, walking over to the couch, sitting down next to her. Amethyst followed suit, sitting the other side of her.</p><p>“It’s okay to feel sad about things, you know... I mean, I could tell you did when I went in your room” he said fairly quietly.</p><p>“I... I just... I can’t believe this is actually happening.” Sapphire began, “I-it feels like she’s a-always been there... She’s... She can’t be gone. Not forever. I-I didn’t even get to say goodbye-“ she was cut off as Steven threw his arms around her.</p><p>Finally, she couldn’t hold it back any longer, and the tears fell. Amethyst joined the hug after a few moments, and all three of them sat there either crying or close to tears. The temperature dropped, but not enough for any actual ice to form.</p><p>They stayed like that for a while, Sapphire remaining silent the whole time. Steven and Amethyst pulled away and just sat with her for a moment, before she spoke up again.</p><p>“I just... I wish I’d done more...”</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>“I... I should have told her I loved her more, I should have spent more time as Garnet, and more time together... I... I should have saved her...”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>... can you hear me?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Healing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A lot of you have asked about it, so yeah...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“But... Maybe I still can!” she said, looking at Steven. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought of this before. “Steven, you could try and heal her!”</p><p>Steven returned her gaze, calculating. “Hey... That might work! We'd need all of the pieces of her gem, how many do you have?”</p><p>“Just one” she said, jumping off the couch with more enthusiasm than she would normally have dared to show. She might have Ruby back. She might come back. What if she did? Would she still be rejuvenated? That didn’t matter, as long as Sapphire could see her again.</p><p>“Well, we should get all of the pieces, and I can’t actually promise you that it'll actually work...” Steven said, standing up.</p><p>“Well, it’s worth a try!”</p><p>As it turned out, Sapphire had come out of her room relatively early in the morning, and so they had all day to collect the numerous red shards still scattered around near the tower in little homeschool.</p><p>It was a little unsettling, but if it would bring Ruby back...</p><p>After a while, they had finally pieced together what they could and started trying different methods of fixing the gem back together.</p><p>Steven's healing spit alone did nothing, but that was okay. There were other things to try.</p><p>Rose's fountain didn’t do anything either, and Sapphire was beginning to wonder if it was going to work. She didn’t want to look, because she didn’t want to see this failing. She only wanted to see Ruby again.</p><p>Finally, they tried the corruption cure. Sapphire and Steven filled the bathtub half way, and poured in the essences of three of the four diamonds. Steven licked his finger and dipped it in too, the water turning into a beautiful mix of white, blue, yellow and pink.</p><p>Sapphire held the shards under the water, waiting. This had to work, it HAD to. After about a minute and no obvious results, she took the gemstone out of the water to examine it, still shards. Maybe they didn’t have all of the pieces? If they just went out and got all of the pieces-</p><p>“Sapphire?” Steven said quietly. “I... I don’t think it’s going to work...”</p><p>She stared down at the red shards in her hand. “N-no, it has to! I-I... I need it to”</p><p>“Sapphire... We already tried everything we can think of-”</p><p>“M-maybe we don’t have all of the pieces-“</p><p>“I’m pretty sure we do, Sapphire” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry”</p><p>She didn’t know what to say, her head was spinning. How was it that minutes ago she had been excited? Even though she didn’t want to see this fail, she had looked. There were no visible timelines where Ruby came back, but Sapphire thought that Ruby would just... Cheat fate as she had done many times before.</p><p>She wanted to leave, but as she turned around there were butterflies. Her breathing quickened, and she stepped backwards, dropping the shards on the ground. “N-no... No-“ </p><p>Something grabbed a hold of her, and she struggled to free herself. It was strong, and she had to put up a fight against it.</p><p>“Sapphire! It’s okay! You’re alright, it’s just me. It’s Steven.”  He loosened his grip on her, and she turned around to see him. It really was just him.</p><p>She was shaking slightly, the white butterflies still fluttering around in her vision. He looked behind her, as if he could see the butterflies. Whether he could or not, he seemed to understand.</p><p>She flung her arms around his neck, telling herself that she’d save the actual crying for later, as she’d already taken up most of his day doing something that had ended up being pointless.</p><p>Needless to say, it was a while before they both let each other go.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>... hey! You're reading this, right? What's your name?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. .</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hi?! Sorry, I blanked out for a moment there... Jeez, I wasn't expecting... Nevermind...</p><p>... Well, anyways, my name's Ruby! Umm... Do you know where we are? I can't actually see any of you...</p><p>Eh, I'm sure there's nothing bad here.</p><p>...</p><p>... I feel like I'm forgetting something...</p><p>Oh... OH SHOOT, SAPPHIRE!!!</p><p>Oh stars, how could I FORGET her?! This place is messing with my head...</p><p>Have any of you seen her?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hello! Virgil (the author) here! Sorry I haven't been updating this... I'll try my best to figure out something else! There might be a few chapters with Ruby if that's okay with you... Also, in case you haven't figured it out, she can interact with you! So I'm sure you can say anything in the comments that you want her to hear! Questions, general garbage, random stuff, whatever! Basically, a Q&amp;A for Ruby for the next few chapters while I write up some stuff for Sapphire. That's all folks, take care!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Q and A</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hey guys! I'm SO sorry for the unannounced hiatus, I.. honestly, I lost interest in writing this. But now I'm back to pick it up again! Hopefully!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>@FangirlAtemmptingStuff : This is cool! Hi Ruby!</p><p>Hi? How are you?</p><p>@fantasychica37: You helped end the reign of the Diamonds, got hit with a rejuvenator by a gem who’s since been taken care of and then shattered and now you exist outside the universe, I guess, and your friends tried to fix your gem but couldn’t and no one knows what’s going on</p><p>Oh....... Oh yeah! I remember now......</p><p>@Clinohumite : Welcome to heaven Ruby enjoy your stay.</p><p>... Thank you? I'm not sure I'm in "heaven" though... Actually, I still have no idea where I am. How long has it been?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm... Still here. Have any of you seen my Sapphire anywhere??</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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